The protesters assembled on the Mall yesterday with a plan to voice their less-than-generous views about a certain president and his vice president. They would form a human chain to spell out I-M-P-E-A-C-H, even including an exclamation point.

But only 150 or so showed up, far fewer than the 1,000 organizers had hoped for. As their photo opportunity approached, they knew they’d be lucky to spell I-M-P.

“We’re going to have to scrap the big plan,” George Ripley, the protest’s leader, announced. He advised his allies to rearrange everyone. They would still form I-M-P-E-A-C-H-!, he insisted, only on a tad smaller scale.

“A nightmare,” a pony-tailed confederate said, shaking his head.

Maybe they did want to spell “imp” and it was simply a Dennis Kucinich rally? By the way, I’m offended by the use of the word “confederate” being applied to a hippie/nutcase.

The apparent apathy puzzled Jaime Todaro, a software writer who attended as a member of Code Pink, a group that has been especially active in waging war protests lately. No less than four peace medallions dangled from her ears.

When the subject of protesting the war comes up, she said, her friends and neighbors in Rockville express interest. “But they always seem to have something else to do; their own lives seem to be more important,” she said. “This is the most important thing I could be doing today.”

Well, see most Americans don’t think it is good to be doing this that support al-Qaeda. We would rather volunteer our time to help those in our community, or those serving in the Armed Forces who are fighting our actual enemy — not the ones in our imagination.